Monday, June 4, 2012

Today in TV History
Classic family drama The Waltons concluded in 1981 after nine seasons and 221 episodes. Six follow-up movies, to-date, have aired, and the clan will gather at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 29 for a 40th anniversary celebration. For more information, click on the following: http://waltons40th.com.

-Rating Results:
CBS led the overnights on this first Sunday in June despite airing all repeats, beating second-place NBC by 10 percent. Next was ABC, which featured the season-premieres of Secret Millionaire and Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, followed by a night of all encore telecasts on Fox.

A 60 Minutes second-run on CBS won the 7 p.m. hour with a 6.9 rating/13 share in the overnights, followed by repeats of the Dogs in the City pilot (#3: 3.2/ 6 at 8 p.m.), The Good Wife (#2: 3.5/ 6 at 9 p.m.) and canceled CSI: Miami (#2: 3.5/ 6 t 10 p.m.). This fall, The Mentalist moves into the Sunday 10 p.m. hour out of The Good Wife.

NBC opened with Dateline second in the 7 p.m. hour, at a 3.3/ 6; followed by 8 p.m. special Adele Live in London at a first-place 4.2/ 7 at 8 p.m. Comparably, Adele Live in London increased from the 7:30 p.m. portion of Dateline (3.4/ 6) by 24 percent. Annual The Miss USA Pageant was next on NBC at a 4.0/ 7 from 9-11 p.m., which dipped by 11 percent from the year-ago telecast (4.5/ 8 on 6/19/11). Here is the half-hour breakdown:

Over at ABC, the new season of inspirational Secret Millionaire kicked-off with a second-place 3.9/ 7 in the overnights at 8 p.m., which built by 30 percent from an encore telecast of lead-in America’s Funniest Home Videos (#3: 3.0/ 6 at 7 p.m.). Comparably, however, Secret Millionaire dropped by a significant 53 percent from the year-ago season-opener in the same time period (8.3/13 on 3/06/11).

Next on the alphabet net was the second-season premiere of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition at an uneventful 3.1/ 5 from 9-11 p.m. One year earlier, the Extreme Makeover spin-off debuted with a 4.4/ 8 in the Monday 10 p.m. hour on May 30, 2011. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

There was nothing positive to report, as usual, on Saturday with three encore telecasts of Secret Millionaire leading ABC to victory with an average 3.70 million viewers and a 0.9 rating/3 share among adults 18-49. Game 2 of The Stanley Cup Finals on NBC, L.A. Kings at NJ Devils, tied ABC in the demo, with a mere 2.54 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. Elsewhere, third-place Fox aired baseball, and CBS filled this first Saturday in June with a repeat of Rules of Engagement, another burn-off episode of sitcom How To Be a Gentleman and encore telecasts of canceled CSI: Miami and 48 Hours Mystery.

A night of repeats on CBS finished first overall in total viewers, with ABC No. 1 among adults 18-49. 20/20 on ABC topped the night in the demo, with a 1.5 rating/5 share at 10 p.m.; while Dateline on NBC was the most-watched, with 6.02 million viewers from 9-11 p.m. Aside from two burn-off episodes of canceled sitcom BFF on NBC in the 8 p.m. hour and aforementioned 20/20 and Dateline, the rest of the evening featured encore telecasts.

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OTHER NETWORK ITEMS
Upfront Marketplace Update
There are no reported dollar amounts at present. But CBS, the most-watched network, began making upfront deals on late last week; and adult 18-49 leader Fox is doing early business with auto manufacturers and at least two movie studios at reported CPM bumps in the high single-digit percent range. ABC, NBC and The CW are also writing business, but the details are unclear.

TVMI on The FDH Lounge
Rick Morris of The FDH Lounge, the Great American Radio Show on Internet TV, spoke to us on the state of television this past weekend. Click on the following for the conversation: http://tinyurl.com/7rynv9c
Late Night May Ratings Snapshot
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on NBC outdelivered The Late Show With David Letterman on CBS in total viewers and all key demos in the just concluded May 2012 sweeps. Tonight averaged 3.6 million viewers versus 3.1 million for Letterman from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m., with a 0.8 rating/3 share among adults 18-49 (versus a 0.7/ 3 for Letterman). Nightline on ABC averaged 3.9 million viewers and a 0.9/ 3 among adults 18-49 from 11:35 p.m. to 12 a.m., with lead-out Jimmy Kimmel Live at 1.9 million viewers and a 0.5/ 3 in the demo in the 12 a.m. hour. Comparably, Leno increased its lead over Letterman in total viewers to 16 percent, up from a 13 percent win in May 2011 and a 15 percent margin in the most recent sweep month, February 2012.

NBC also dominated from 12:35-1:35 a.m. care of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon at 1.7 million viewers, versus 1.5 million for The Late Show With Craig Ferguson on CBS. Fallon averaged a 0.5/ 3 among adults 18-49 — one-tenth of a rating point ahead of Ferguson.

Updated Results in Network Daytime Talk
The View on ABC was the standout of the quartet, of course, but 3.22 million viewers for the week of May 21 was 13 percent below the 3.68 million one year earlier. Female demo losses were as much as 16 percent among women 25-54 (958,000 to 809,000). The Talk on CBS continued to trail, but it narrowed the gap year-to-year with growth of 16 percent in total viewers (2.00 to 2.32 million) and 17 percent in women 25-54 (560,000 to 653,000). And The Chew on ABC remained on the downside from year-ago occupant All My Children as follows:

As for canceled The Revolution on ABC, 1.31 million viewers this week was 47 percent below One Life to Live one year earlier (2.50 million).

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Fall 2012 Schedule Analyses
No one ever said rebuilding a network is easy, and the inherent obstacle NBC faces is the abundance of low-rated returnees. Only Sunday Night Football and The Voice are expected to resonate, and 10 comedies on the line-up (including new entries Go On, The New Normal, Animal Practice and Guys With Kids) is a definite risk given the lack of audience for the established fare. For a look at each individual network analysis, click on the following:

Remembering Kathryn Joosten
Kathryn Joosten, the two-time Emmy Award winning co-star of Desperate Housewives, passed away on Saturday of lung cancer at her home in Westlake Village, California. She was 72 and appeared on a recurring basis on the ABC dramedy, which concluded three weeks ago, as cranky neighbor Karen McCluskey. Mirroring real life, Joosten’s character was also battling cancer.

Born on December 20, 1939 in Eustis, Florida, Joosten was married with two kids and had a career as a psychiatric nurse. But she decided to pursue her dream to become an actress at age 42 after her marriage ended, beginning in community theater in Chicago and ultimately in guest appearances on series like Family Matters, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, Grace Under Fire, ER, Roseanne and Seinfeld. Joosten had a recurring role on sitcom Dharma & Greg, appeared on daytime drama General Hospital from 2002-03, and was Martin Sheen’s trusted secretary, Mrs. Landingham, on NBC drama The West Wing. Joosten was elected three times as a Governor for the Television Academy’s Performers Peer Group; completing two terms, and was in the midst of another term at the time of her passing.

Said Alan Perris, COO of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences: “We are saddened to hear the news about Kathy and extend our deepest condolences to her family. Her talents as an actress are well known, but I also had the pleasure of working with her for six years here at the Television Academy, and knew her to be an exceptional representative of the performers peer group and spirited contributor to our organization. She will be missed.”

Joosten is survived by her brother, Henry Jay Rausch; two sons, Jonathan and Timothy; and two grandsons.

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Remembering Richard Dawson
Richard Dawson, who successfully morphed from sitcom star to game show host, passed away on Saturday from complications of esophageal cancer. He was 79.

Remembered, of course, for his Emmy winning stint as the first host of long-running Family Feud, Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm on November 20, 1932 in Gosport, Hampshire, England. After making the rounds as a guest star on 1960s series like The Jack Benny Program, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dawson shot to fame as Cpl. Peter Newkirk in 1965-71 sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Shortly later he became a regular panelist on The Match Game and remained with the game show through 1978. While on The Match Game, he began hosting Family Feud in 1976 and stayed with the daily half-hour through 1985. In 1987, Dawson co-starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in action movie The Running Man as an egotistical game show host.

The late Ray Combs inherited the Family Feud hosting chair in 1984, but Dawson returned for the 1994-95 season. Dawson is survived by his second wife, Gretchen Johnson, and three children.

Lee Rierson has been named Chief Operating Officer for Shine America, which distributes its library of programming and formats to more than 150 countries. Joining the company in 2006, Rierson will be responsible for all of Shine America’s corporate and strategic operations, physical production studios, business and legal affairs, human resources and labor relations across all labels and business units. Before joining Shine, Rierson served as Vice President of Business Affairs at the ABC Television Network and practiced law at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman; the Law Offices of Steven Drapkin; and the Proskauer Rose firm.
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Which one of the following male names was not the actual title of a TV sitcom?

a) Ernest
b) Freddie
c) Grady
d) Reggie
e) Tom

Friday’s answer was…

Which one of the following Our Gang kids was not a student of sexpot Miss Crabtree?

a) Buddy
b) Chubby
c) Jackie Cooper
d) Farina
e) Froggy

Is: e) Froggy. Miss Crabtree (June Marlowe) appeared in six Our Gang shorts, dating from “Teacher’s Pet” in 1930 through “Readin’ and Writin’ ” in 1932. Billy “Froggy” Laughlin did not join the cast until “The New Pupil” in 1940.

Marc Berman is the Editor in Chief for TV Media Insights, the online destination for television and media. Berman has appeared on camera for “Extra,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “Access Hollywood,” “The CBS Evening News,” CNN, and more; and was the author of 2014 desk calendar, “This Day in TV History.”

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